NACE surveys in the recent past indicate that most employers recruiting soon-to-graduate college students use college GPA as an initial screen for moving to the interview stage, with 3.0 being the most common cutoff. So you may expect a discontinuity in employment outcomes between just below and just above 3.0.
Does the survey break it down by major? For example, if you are a philosophy or history major with a 3.5 GPA do you get the same amount of interviews for high paying jobs vs a business or comp sci major with a similar GPA?
All of the ~50 listed job titles for philosophy majors have less than 5 students, which is too small to list specific totals for privacy reasons. Software engineer only appears in a single year, so I suspect that only 1 philosophy major worked as a software engineer rather than “some.” A similar statement could be made about the other job titles. My guess is that the likely 1 philosophy major who worked as a software engineer was a double major in CS; and the CS major (and related skill set required to be successful in tech interviews and coding type tests) had more to do with being hired as a software engineer than the student’s GPA. A similar “new grad” job listing at the company the philosophy student works lists the following among the job description requirements. It suggests they are looking for a specific skill set, rather than assuming a high GPA kid from a T20 will figure it out on the job, regardless of major.
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, a related field, or equivalent training/fellowship/work experience
At highly selective colleges, the overwhelming majority of students tend to have high GPAs, although median GPAs at Berkeley are notably lower than HYPSM… type private colleges. In the most recent available year, the median graduating GPA of Berkley philosophy majors was in the A- range, so the majority of the group were likely A/A- GPA type students.
What I cant tell from the data is how many of these philosophy majors actually want a higher paying job but cant get one with their degree?
If the majority of kids have high GPAs, is it their preference to be a night stocker or barista vs working in a job that pays more? Almost half are still looking for a job. What kind of jobs are they looking for and why cant they find one?
Or are they working a grunt job while they wait for grad school to start in the fall? “A few months after graduation” is not a meaningful period of time for a lot of people.
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If they just wanted a grunt job, it’s probably pretty easy to find. Unemployment rate is extremely low.
Just looking at that data, if 33% are employed and 45% are looking, I assume the remaining 22% are doing something else.
Yes, 2 months isnt a long time but 45% is a pretty big number considering they have a degree from Berkely if they have decent grades.
and I can’t imagine that high a percentage are going to grad school.
Again, one only needs to look at the job fairs and handshake.
The amount of jobs available for folks with social science and humanities degrees pales in comparison to others. The amount of companies on campus for these students is small - and typically local.
It doesn’t mean their degrees aren’t good or they aren’t future solid contributors to society.
But I think the data is pretty clear that these kids struggle at a much higher level. Even those employed are under employed. And anecdotally, seeing one kid an engineer and another an international relations and poli sci major, I see this first hand. My nephew was also poli sci - and it was the same.
A police sci major who took the rigorous track which includes statistics, data analysis, and proficiency in one of the programming languages used in interpreting large datasets is HIGHLY employable.
I worked in recruiting at a global consumer products company and most of the market research staff (hundreds of highly paid professionals) were either psych or poli sci majors. Did your nephew learn how to construct and validate a survey? Interpret the data?
That’s market research, a fantastic career path for a poli sci major.
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(Presumably, you mean political science, not “police sci”…)
Seems like political science departments commonly require their majors to take some sort of political science statistical methods course, although it typically appears to be on the level of AP statistics. Would you recommend that they add more advanced courses on this subject to their major requirements?
Not sure but doubtful. He was very idealistic like my daughter but learned in the years after school and struggling financially that it’s tough to be a do gooder.
But I work for a global company - and a lot of market research jobs are getting outsourced and going overseas. That was my last company too 9 years ago. They have managers of the data but the # crunchers are moving out of house.
We are trying to build a data team though. But not research. More setting up dashboards.
My daughter did this (survey construction) in hs and I believe will be learning in college. While she lacks interest, the schools definitely have added quant courses to majors. She was trying to get it waived due to AP research but they did not allow her.
My nephew got an mba in finance and now somehow is a programmer in NYC. Had to pass a bunch of tests. Shocked himself that he passed. Self taught. His brother is now self studying a few languages. He’s in accounting for a retailer.
Why would your D want the requirement waived? More rigor is always better than less…no HS can teach a methodology class the way a college will.
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For reasons I brought up b4. Kids are choosing these majors because they deem them easier or more aligned with their skill set. In mba school I struggled with stats…regressions. Still don’t remember anything about them. She’s me !!
Already two weeks into her internship, which she is enjoying and it’s very well done, she’s already stated - I don’t want a desk job.
I imagine her interests are in being a case worker and working with refugee families. But unfortunately that’s a tough life.
She’s 20 and works diligently in school. Her bf does little work and gets great grades. She’s opposite. Does well grade wise but works diligently to pull that off.
AP research does not necessarily imply survey construction, even if some students did that type of thing for it. So it is not surprising that a college would not exempt a student from a course on that matter based on an AP research course or score from high school.
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Abd im glad they didn’t.
She came in with I think 33 credits but they o my gave her 9. It’s ok.
These kids get so excited for school til the actual school work.
Science is tough for her. But she did one geology class last summer at a Cc. The other this summer at the state flagship - asynchronous.
Dang it’s pricey. I’m used to free tuition (with her merit aid).
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Uhmm, I understand your concerns about the challenges of being an idealistic “do gooder”. However, I think there are still opportunities to make a positive impact and build data teams) I think unexpected career paths and self-study can lead to exciting opportunities!
Moreover, I bet that only by staying open-minded and adaptable in navigating the job market, the success chance grows:)
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